San Jose State has backed out of its 2010 football game at Stanford for financial reasons and lined up a more lucrative season opener instead.

Alabama.

The Spartans are expected to receive approximately $1 million from playing in Tuscaloosa — about five times the guarantee they would collect from playing the Bill Walsh Legacy Game at Stanford Stadium.

The additional revenue will help offset expected budget cuts in coming years.

“We’re glad it worked out and understand the difficulties (Alabama) presents,” SJSU Coach Dick Tomey said Tuesday. “But we’ll find a way to make a positive out of it. From a dollars-and-cents perspective, it was a necessity.”

The change leaves Stanford with a hole in its 2010 schedule that probably will be filled by Sacramento State or another Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division I-AA) team.

“I feel horrible having to cancel a game 15 months out,” SJSU Athletic Director Tom Bowen said. “But this is the right decision for us.”

Bowen said he broached the issue several months ago with his Stanford counterpart, Bob Bowlsby, and asked to either increase the guarantee or move the game to Spartan Stadium, which would create a bigger payday for SJSU. (Tomey also asked Stanford Coach Jim Harbaugh about moving the game.)

But the Cardinal, which has budget problems of its own — and which lost at Spartan Stadium in 2006 — declined SJSU’s requests.

As a result, Bowen informed Stanford last week that he was backing out. The Spartans won’t be penalized, and the schools moved the game to 2014. (They’re also scheduled to meet annually in 2011-13.)

Bowlsby was not available for comment.

SJSU football is a self-sustaining operation — Bowen doesn’t take money allocated for, or generated by, other teams to pay for the football program.

The huge paycheck from Alabama “insulates football from any budget cuts and allows us to keep moving forward,” Bowen said.

“We decided to become proactive,” he added. “We’re anticipating that in 2010 and ’11, enormous budget cuts will come. We’re not going to wait for the (California State University) system to tell us what to do.”

Why Alabama?

Because the Crimson Tide had the opening in its schedule and the money in its coffers. Thanks to their huge, sold-out stadiums and rich television contracts, Southeastern Conference teams cut the biggest checks in the country, with some exceeding $1 million.

“Their guarantees are more attractive than any Pac-10 team,” said Tomey, who has known Alabama Athletic Director Mal Moore for decades. “This is about the finances.”

Given the humidity in Tuscaloosa and the talent on Alabama’s roster, the game could be even more challenging than SJSU’s 2009 season opener “… at USC.

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